Remembering
by bionic4ever
Summary: On the 10th anniversary of her parents' deaths, Jaime and Steve look back at what happened that day. For one of them, remembering may lead to tragedy.
1. Chapter 1

**Remembering**

Chapter One - April 16, 1976 - 6:00am

_It always rains on April 16th_, Steve thought as he made the turn through the main gate of the Elgin ranch. _Kind of fits, I guess_. He looked up at the carriage house; no lights, no sign of movement. Hopefully, Jaime had been able to get some sleep. Steve parked his car next to hers and sat there, lost in thoughts of another rainy day, ten years earlier.

April 16, 1966 - 12:15pm

Steve's car nearly spun out as he rounded the curve up the driveway to his parents' home. The resulting dust clouds blurred his vision almost as much as the tears in his eyes. There was only one thought in his mind, resonating to his very core: _I've got to get to Jaime!_

His mother's phone call had pulled him out of Physics, his first class of the day. She'd been crying almost too hard to get the words out, and at first Steve had thought something had happened to his stepfather, Jim. "Steve, you have to come home right away," Helen sobbed. "Jaime needs you!"

Jaime - his childhood sweetheart who, when he was honest enough to admit it, he still loved with his whole heart. "Mom, what happened to Jaime?"

"That poor, sweet child...her parents...there was an accident. Oh, Steve - they were killed."

"Both of them?"

"The Sheriff was at the door first things this morning, and we went with him to break the news. She was just leaving for school..."

"Where's Jaime now?" He didn't have to ask if she was ok; he knew she was as far as she'd ever get from ok.

"We brought her home with us. She can stay here as long as she needs to."

"Mom, I'm leaving right now. I'll be home in a couple of hours. In the meantime, hug her tight for me, ok?"

As Steve drove, his mind tried to absorb the situation. Jim and Ann - gone? He couldn't begin to imagine what Jaime was going through. Their families had grown extremely close over the years, mostly due to Jaime and Steve's friendship. They often took their vacations together and both families shared the major life experiences of the other - Steve's graduation, Jaime's tennis championships - as though they were all related. Ann baked the best chocolate chip-pecan cookies on the planet, always in double batches, sending half to the Elgins.

Steve felt as though he'd lost members of his own family, but he knew his pain was nothing compared to the agony Jaime had to be feeling. She had only one other living relative - an aunt she'd never met who'd been estranged from the family since before she was even born. _You're not alone, Jaime_, he told her in his head. _You've got my mom and dad, and me, and...I love you._

Now, as Steve spun up the driveway, leaving dust cyclones in his wake, Helen ran out of the house to meet him. Steve screeched the car to a halt and threw his arms around his mother, who had obviously been crying all morning. "Oh, thank God you're home!" Helen cried.

"Is she in the house?"

Helen stepped back to look at her son, and sadly shook her head. "She's gone, Steve."

"What do you mean, gone?" Had there been another accident?

"She said she wanted to lie down, so I took her back to your room, tucked a blanket around her and came out to call you. When I went back to check on her, just a few minutes later, the window was open, and Jaime was gone!"

April 16, 1976 - 7:05am

Steve had been lost inside his head, remembering, for just over an hour, but there were still no lights on in the carriage house and no one up and moving around. Jaime had always been the earliest riser he knew, and thinking back to how she'd run away ten years ago, a gnawing feeling began to grow in the pit of Steve's stomach. He decided he'd rather be embarassed if he was wrong than have to live with himself if he'd been right and done nothing. He turned the knob on the downstairs door hard enough to break the lock, and quickly but quietly ran up the stairs. As he'd suspected, her bed was empty, and the bathroom door was open, the room unoccupied. He called her name a couple of times, knowing there'd be no answer. He debated taking his car or one of the horses, but decided he could cover more ground on foot, and he set out, determined to find Jaime.

His first stop was her old childhood home, now boarded up and abandoned. He could see no signs of entry, forced or otherwise, so he began to search the yard. He looked up into every tree, paying special attention to the old maple that used to hold 'their' treehouse. No Jaime. At bionic speed, he ran down to the stream about a half-mile from the house, where Jaime liked to go to sit and think - even when she was older - but she wasn't there either.

Steve looked up to the heavens and then deep into his heart, trying to find some clue. "Dammit, Jaime, where are you?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two - April 16, 1976 - 9:00am

Steve searched every square foot of land between the two homes with no results. Feeling defeated but not yet ready to give up, he leaned against a fencepost and searched through decade-old memories for any clue that might help him in the present.

April 16, 1966 - 5:30pm

Jaime had been missing for almost nine hours when Jim Elgin reluctantly called the Sheriff. "No, she's not a runaway," he told the deputy standing on his doorstep. "She lost both of her parents today; she's grieving. She's only 16 years old, and she's all alone out there."

"Is she driving?" the deputy asked.

"No. She got her license about two months ago, but she has no car. The horses are all accounted for. She's on foot. Please - we need to find her."

The deputy took a few notes and was on his way. "Well, he'll be a big help," Jim noted to Helen.

Steve returned a short time later, having driven everywhere he could think of. He'd decided to take a horse and search the fields between the two houses.

"Let me get you something to eat," Helen insisted.

"Thanks, Mom, but I'd rather keep looking. Jaime's out there somewhere, and she needs me."

Helen convinced him he think more clearly and have more energy if he ate, so Steve choked down half a sandwich and took off on the fastest horse in the stable. He returned, dejected and alone, just after midnight. The horse was exhausted, and Steve tended to its needs and chose another one.

"You're going back out?" Helen asked, worried about him now, as well as Jaime.

"It's cold, Mom," he said quietly, "and it's gonna get colder. She probably has no jacket, and she's got to be getting hungry."

"Let me pack a few things, for when you find her, or for you, if you get hungry." Helen hurried into the house, returning with a small sack and a thermos, which she placed in the saddlebag, and a blanket that she handed to Steve. She could see in her son's face that it wasn't mere friendship driving him to keep looking for Jaime. His eyes told her the true story - he was fiercely in love with this girl, and would stop at nothing to find her. "You'll find her, Steve," she told him, trying to sound more certain than she felt. "If anyone can find her, it's you."

At 3:30 in the morning, Steve was back at the Sommers' house, having just searched it again. He sat down on the porch to get his bearings and allow the horse to rest and then - he heard it: a muffled sob coming from somewhere over his head. She wasn't on the porch roof or the roof of the house, but he was certain he'd heard her. Still looking upward, his eyes fell upon the place that, in hindsight, was completely logical, but where it had never occured to him to look.

Steve threw the blanket over his shoulder, grabbed the thermos and began climbing the steps to the treehouse. There, huddled up small in a corner and shivering terribly, was Jaime. Steve threw the blanket around her shoulders and hugged her gently.

"Jaime," he whispered, "I'm so sorry..." He held her in his arms for a very long time, until her cries turned to short, little gasps for air. Remembering the thermos, he poured a little into the cup and handed it to her. "Hot chocolate. I know it can't make you feel better, but at least it's warm." Jaime took a sip and then drained the cup.

"More?" Steve offered. She merely shook her head, staring blindly into the distance. Her teeth were still chattering, but Steve was fairly certain it wasn't from the cold. His heart was breaking for her, for the lost, bereft and frightened little girl he saw in Jaime's eyes.

"What can I do to help you, Sweetheart?"

"Tell me this is all a really long, really horrible nightmare?" she pleaded. "Pretty soon, I'll wake up with my mom standing over me, telling me I'm late for school..."

Steve moved over to sit beside her. He wrapped his arm around Jaime's shoulder and pulled her closer.

"What am I supposed to do now?" she asked in a very small voice. "I don't have any family. I...don't have...anyone." She buried her head on his shoulder, fresh tears pearling down her cheeks.

"You've got Jim and Helen," he told her as he lovingly stroked her hair. "They love you like a daughter; they always have." Steve paused - should he say it? 'It' was the truth about how he felt toward Jaime. He'd never really told her because of the difference in their ages. He was 20 now, and she'd be 17 in a few months. Still, he'd always felt this way, deep inside, and right now was when she desperately needed to hear it.

His hand moved from her hair to her cheek, softly caressing her tears away. "And you have me. I love you, Jaime." She responded by wrapping her arms tightly around him and clinging to him as though he was the only life raft on a sinking ship. Steve continued to hold her until she'd cried herself out - at least temporarily - and her trembling began to subside. His heart knew without a doubt that this was no longer high school puppy love; this was real. It was knowledge he filed away for...someday.

Finally, Jaime looked at him, just a little bit stronger but much more resolute. "Steve, you know how you asked what you could do?"

"Yeah?"

"I want you to take me there. I wanna see it, the place where they...crashed."

"That's not a good idea right now. Maybe when you're a little stronger." Steve had seen it, when he'd been driving around trying to find her. It wasn't a picture she should have to carry in her head for the rest of her life: the narrow road curving along the side of the mountain, the broken guardrail, the sickeningly steep drop to the jagged rocks below...

April 16, 1976 - 9:15am

Steve's mind snapped instantly back to the present. Suddenly, he was sure he knew where he'd find her.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three - April 16, 1976 - 9:35am

Steve parked his car at a pull-off spot near the base of the mountain. He zeroed in with his eye and his heart skipped a beat. He ran faster than he ever had in his life to reach Jaime, stopping about ten yards away to move in slowly. Jaime was standing on the exact spot where her parents' car had plummeted off the mountain - on the other side of the guardrail, teetering slightly as she peered over the edge. Steve hesitated. If she was startled or frightened, tragedy would be almost inevitable. He decided to move in close, speak to her softly and then help her back over the guardrail. She was deep in thought and didn't hear him approach. As he got closer, Steve saw she had flowers in her hand.

At precisely the same instant that Steve reached the guardrail, Jaime tossed the flowers over the edge. The momentum from that very small motion caused her to lose her precarious footing and she began to fall. In one sure, steady move, as though he were tackling a quarterback, Steve dove toward her while keeping his feet firmly planted on the edge. He wrapped his arms tightly around Jaime's body and pivoted 180 degrees, depositing her safely on the other side of the guardrail.

He was about to blast her with ' What the hell were you thinking?' when he got a close look at her face. Her eyes were wide with shock, and he watched her face turn pale as the reality of what had nearly happened began to sink in. He held his arm out to her and she leaned into him just as she had at 16.

"Steve...I...how...thank you."

"Shh-hh-h. It's ok, Sweetheart. You're alright - that's all that matters."

Steve took her back to the carriage house, made some coffee, and they sat down to talk. Jaime told him that, unable to sleep, she'd gone to the cemetery around 3am and just sat on the grass between the two graves, remembering. On her way out, she'd found a patch of her mother's favorite wildflowers growing by the gate. She'd left some on the graves and decided to pick a few more and take them up to the cliff.

"And when I got there," Jaime told him, "I just started -"

"Remembering?"

"Yeah."

"When I first saw you there, it almost looked like you were gonna jump."

Jaime hung her head. "I'm sorry. I was just trying to feel closer to them."

A lightbulb went on in Steve's head. "You know what I think? You need to make some new memories for April 16th - happier ones. You can still remember your parents, of course. You always will, but it might be nice to remember with a smile."

"What'd you have in mind?"

"Well...I thought maybe we could build a treehouse."

"Huh?"

"Like you had when we were kids. Might be fun to build a new one."

Jaime smiled and took Steve's hand. "Lead on, my love." The grieving 16-year-old and the college man who loved her looked on in approval from the distant past as the present day couple created new, happier things to look back on, the next time they chose to remember.

END


End file.
